One of the first rules of influencing customer satisfaction... communicate with your customers and find every possible way for them to communicate with you. And then, act on that feedback. With over a 90% renewal rate on our business software licenses, Everest shows we practice what we preach. We have online forums where customers interact, raise questions and solve each others' issues. We have a regular customer newsletter sent via email. We have an advisory board of customers that helps us decide what software developments are most needed for the good of the entire community. We announce new value-added services as we sign on new partners that can be integrated with Everest to provide new and better business processes and efficiencies. And starting this year, we have customer meetings! It started in April with Everest World which had an extremely positive outcome based on comments from the attendees.

Now, Everest Software is hosting a training and networking event in Las Vegas in September, called the Everest Forum. At this event, planned with the feedback from our first meeting, customers will have the opportunity to learn new details about how to use the system, network and communicate with each other and with the product experts from Everest Software. Several months ago I presented group training sessions at the Everest World user conference, but for this latest Everest Forum I will get to spend much more time speaking individually or in small groups with the attendees.  An hour sit down with me or one of the other Everest experts is worth the price of admission on its own!  Getting a company's employees up to speed so they can really use more features of the system is a huge benefit. Customer interactions at Everest Forum will include one-on-one sessions, networking lunches, and peer-to-peer round tables.

Besides the networking opportunity which customers told us they found the most valuable part of our events, we also have 2 days of sessions about the latest industry trends, best practices, and fine tuning Everest.  I may be a little biased, but I am extremely excited for those attending the Revenue Growth track. This demonstrates the ins and outs on how to generate more sales over the Web, over the phone, and inside a store.  For those attending some of the other sessions, they can learn anything from how to best organize their warehouse, to accounting for the costs of overseas shipments, to programming with Everest add-ins. 

I can't wait for the Everest Forum, see you all in Vegas!!